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India's Diverge Religion and Secularism AEGAEUM JOURNAL ISSN NO: 0776-3808 INDIA’S DIVERGE RELIGION AND SECULARISM IN 2020- A CRITICAL ANALYSIS Mr. K. Palaniswamy 1 & Ms. G. Priyadharshini 2 1. Assistant Professor, School Of Excellence In Law, The Tamil Nadu Dr. Ambedkar Law University. 2. III Year B.COM, LL.B (HONS) B Section, School Of Excellence In Law, The Tamil Nadu Dr. Ambedkar Law University. [email protected] 2. [email protected] ABSTRACT India is prestigious for its secular notion since, it is the pride of the nation for having freedom to follow religion of their own choice. The era of independent India although inserted the conception of ‘secularism’ only after three decades through the forty-second amendment, it had its essence embedded in the constitutional philosophy under Article 25, 26 and 27. The multi-religious country strived a lot for freedom, so that peace exists in India. Orderly, the constituent assembly enacted such provisions as law, that is necessary for establishing peace in the country. Even though peace exists in India at large, to some extent religious violence stand as a wall of hindrance for attaining peace in the country to the fullest. State, being an essential element of the nation is responsible for the acts of the statesman and also to uphold the law of the land without prejudicing the provisions. State, while legislating a law, has to be within its constitutional boundaries and more importantly ensure Justice to all communities. The democratic country is filled with divergent religious group and it is due to the virtue of law, religious riots and violence had taken place since the three-partition plan of 1947. The paper makes a detailed discussion about secularism, its pros and cons and also several instances of violence are specified. These riots and violence are not meant to be a threat to secularism but, in fact it due to the virtue of law that is to be understood. The paper suggests some reforms that are necessarily needed to sustain peace in the country. In this way, there is a need for an amendment of the constitutional provision of Article 25(2)(b) and also a universal definition of secularism in order to attain consistency. The paper also suggests the ideology of attaining the Uniform Civil Code for India. Thus, Indiabeing the land for various religious communities and the countryman is obliged to keep-up the word of honour, to live in brotherhood and sustain ‘unity and integrity’ of the nation. -INTRODUCTION- The configuration of India’s Constitution is an embodiment of sovereignty, secularism, democracy and equalitythat compiled India, a dignified constitutional republic to be the second most popular country in the world. Highlighting the country’s popularity, religious tolerance 3 is the key element of India’s secularism since,instil tolerance and co-existence is very essential for a country with at least 3https://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/51963/6/06_chapter%201.pdf Volume 8, Issue 9, 2020 http://aegaeum.com/ Page No: 1679 AEGAEUM JOURNAL ISSN NO: 0776-3808 12 religions, over 300 castes, nearly 4000sub-castes and more than 100 languages. At heart, in India secularism is a way of life. The popularity of India’s secularism protects the interest of religious ethos without any discrimination, for the cultural development of different religious and minority communities. The aim of the constitution of India is not meant to differentiate the citizens based on religion, rather it strives to maintain equality prohibiting discrimination to every religious groups. But the concept of secularism was inserted only after three decades of independence. The then late Hon’ble Prime Minister, Indra Gandhi Ji led government enacted a 20 paged document that altered a major part of the constitution that included the words “SOCIALIST, SECULAR” in the preamble thereby giving a new outlook to the constitution. Although, this was not a new concept to be included since it was a debated topic of the constitutional assembly at its inception. But, why didn’t the then Hon’ble Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru Ji government include it in the preamble? 4In fact, the discussion over the incorporation of secularism in the preamble took up a large portion of time when the topic was debated in the constituent assembly whose chairman was Dr.B.R.Ambedkar. Prof. K.P. Shah was the one who demanded for the inclusion of the word ‘secular’. But, due to the ensuing discourse envisaging the Indian state, it was dropped. However, with the view laid byDr. Ambedkar and Nehru Ji, the constituent assembly adopted Article 25,26 and 27 with the intention of furthering secularism. Hence, in order to safeguard the democracy of the people, it was not formally inserted in the constitution but embedded in the constitutional philosophy. However, as the time demands, the forty- second amendment formally inserted the words “socialist, secular” in the preamble at the time of Hon’ble Indira Gandhi’s rule. 5 2.-REAL MEANING OF SECULARISM - “The sole religion of the Government is Nation First, the holy book is the constitution.” – says the Hon’ble Prime Minister of India, Sir Narendra Modi.The Preamble of the country’s Constitution states it to be ‘SECULAR DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC’ and ‘UNITY AND INTEGRITY’ is the aim of India. Therefore, akin the sayings of BJP leader, India is made to be a secular country since its independence. The first user of the word “secularism”, Sir George Holyoake (1851), a British writer, says that ‘the invention was of the view of promoting social order separate from religion, without actively dismissing or criticising religious belief.’ The word ‘secularism’ maintains that there is light and guidance in secular truth, whose conditions and sanctions exists independently and acts forever. 6 Thus, the real meaning of secularism is the absence of ties between religious belief of the state and the government. Whereas, in India some provisions of the constitution itself allows the state to have control of certain religious temples, charities and trusts and also provides for the collection of tax. Despite India adopting itself to be united and integrated, it accepted and protected the interest of various religions of the country. The arguments of many scholar disputes whether India is really a secular nation. Besides, ‘is India a pseudo-secular country?’ is another query that is under discourse. The forty-second amendment of 1976, asserted India to be a secular nation in the Preamble of the constitution. According to India, unlike western countries, secularism does not mean the separation of religion and state. Instead, it means the separation of religion from politics 7. More clearly, it means supporting or participating in a neutral manner in the religious affairs of the country. In fact, the VII schedule of the Indian constitution places religious institutions and charitable trust endowments in the 4https://indianexpress.com/article/research/anant-kumar-hegde-secularism-constitution-india-bjp-jawaharlal- nehru-indira-gandhi-5001085/ 5 It is to be noted that the forty second amendment was enacted, when the PM Mrs. Gandhi declared emergency on June 26 th , 1975 through an All India Radio. 6https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secularism 7 Ruled in a seven-judge constitutional bench – Abhiram Singh vs. C.D.Commachan& others Volume 8, Issue 9, 2020 http://aegaeum.com/ Page No: 1680 AEGAEUM JOURNAL ISSN NO: 0776-3808 concurrent list.8Although, this created overlap between the state and religion which resulted in the state support to various religious schools and personal laws.Religious law in personal domain, supersede parliamentary laws in India. This make us think whether India is really fit to be a secular country. However, the country is prestigious for its traditions and cultural belief thus proving its esteem. 3.-SHORT HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF SECULARISM- Sir Jawaharlal Nehru, the giant leader of freedom struggle, formed the interim government on September 3, 1946 looking for a secular and economic base giving a modern outlook to the country. Though he opposed the proposal of partition of the country based on religion, he was in the position to accept the 3-partition plan, that was an inevitable programme of June 1947. 9 Consequently, on August 15 th , 1947, India and Pakistan became separated as two independent countries. After India came to be an independent domain, the constitutional leaders, wanted the country to be a home for all religion. They wanted the state not to indulge in any religious affairs of the country at the same time, in order to maintain peace among the multi-religious people gave some state power as a restriction under Article 25(2). The prolonged epoch of the constitutional draft discussed a lot on secular country for India. Initially the word was not included but, the 42 nd amendment explicitly added the word ‘secular’ in the preamble. However, the essence of secularism was present implicitly, prior the amendment, through various provisions like right to freedom of religion, Article 14, Article 15, Article 16, Article 25, Article 26, Article 27, Article 28 and Article 325. While Article 25(2) being a restriction, was introduced to maintain harmony among religions, but it has always been used by governments to win their political battle. 4. -REASON FOR THE SEPARATION OF POLITICS AND RELIGION : The impact of India’s diverse religion is an evident fromthe documented history which began with the historical Vedic religion that dated back between 1750 to 500 BCE. 10 The British colonial administration, in order to rule different people of the land divided them on the basis of religion and caste. It is to be noted that the division was in accord with the Western-type Secularism (separation of religion and politics).
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